New Jersey climber with the Seattle-based Madison Mountaineering group, Marisa Eve Girawong was an avid rock climber and mountaineer who was pursuing an advanced degree in mountaineering medicine. A doctor with the mountaineering group’s Everest expedition this year, Girawong was a 2009 graduate of Rutgers University-Newark College of Arts and Sciences where she majored in Biology. According to her LinkedIn profile, she was actively involved in the Chinese Student Organization, coordinating the group’s China Nite in 2007 and 2008.
Before joining Madison Mountaineering in April 2014, Girawong worked at East Orange General Hospital as an emergency room physician’s assistant. She returned to Mt Everest after failing to climb Everest because of last year’s tragedy. Her team lost 3 Sherpas then and they could not summit. She’s back this year for a second attempt and this time round, she was killed in an avalanche triggered by the earthquake that has devastated Nepal.